Sacred Heart Sweeps Russell

KSAL Sports - February 12, 2014 12:13 am

After nearly a month of not having to play a game outside of Salina, Sacred Heart picked up two victories at Russell Tuesday night. The girls won a back-and-forth game 43-39 while the boys cruised to a 65-39 victory.

In the girls game, Russell took an early two-possession lead, but Sacred Heart came back to tie the score at 7-7. The Broncos didn’t trail in the first quarter until a steal and last-second basket gave the Knights its first lead of 11-10 to end the opening eight minutes of the game. The second quarter featured another tie and four more lead changes. Neither team led by more than four points as the Knights maintained a one-point advantage and went into the locker room at halftime ahead 22-21.

The lead changed five more times in the third quarter and Russell made up the point they had trailed after each of the first two quarters. Heading into the final quarter, the score was tied 31-31. With the score 34-31 in the Knights favor early in the final quarter, a 6-0 run gave Russell a three-point lead. The Broncos led once more at 39-38, but a 9-2 Sacred Heart run to close the game gave the Knights a big, four-point road win.

The Knights have now won four of their last five games and were led in scoring by Cara Donley with 27 points. Sacred Heart improves to 6-10 overall and 2-6 in the NCAA league.

The boys game wasn’t nearly as close, but the end result was the same with another Sacred Heart win. It was close to five minutes into the game before either team made a field goal. With the score 4-1, a Jerod Toogood basket ended the drought. Up to that point, the teams had been trading free throws. The Knights used the momentum to go ahead 14-7 after the first quarter and built a 44-20 lead at halftime. Sacred Heart eventually built the lead to 30 points and the game ended with a continuously running clock and a blowout win.

Sacred Heart improves to 11-5 and 6-2 in the NCAA league.

The Knights are off this Friday and will play next on the road at Beloit next Tuesday night. Pregame is scheduled for 5:50, with the girls tipoff at 6pm. The games will be broadcast on Classic Hits 104.9 or online at classichits1049.com.